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Published-Ahead-of-Print February 10, 2006, DOI:10.2164/jandrol.05182

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Growth factors and the epididymis

Jose L. Tomsig and Terry T. Turner

MECHANISMS OF CELL COMMUNICATION

Mechanisms of cell communication are of paramount importance in multicellular organisms because they are responsible for the coordination of basic processes such as growth, differentiation, immunity, motility, transport and others. The most common mechanism of cell communication is that mediated by extracellular signaling molecules that bind membrane receptors of target cells and activate a host of intracellular signaling cascades leading to specific biological responses. According to the proximity of the target cell, signaling is classified as endocrine or paracrine. In the first case, target cells are located in a distant site and are influenced by signaling molecules arriving via the vasculature. In the second case, target cells are influenced by the secretion of neighboring cells. Autocrine and juxtacrine modes of secretion have also been recognized meaning that signaling molecules act on the cell that secreted them, or that plasma membrane molecules of one cell activate receptors in the membrane of a neighboring cell. In the case of the epididymis, a "lumicrine" mechanism must also be considered which refers to signaling molecules reaching the epididymis from another organ, the testis, via the luminal compartment rather than the vasculature (Turner and Miller, 1997; Hinton et al., 1998). In recent years, testicular factors and lumicrine signaling in general have been recognized as important contributors to the physiology of epididymis (Hinton et al., 2003).




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